50,000 students have attended road safety progamme

Getting behind the wheel of a car as a young
driver or passenger is said to be among the most dangerous
things a person will do in their entire life.

Road Safety
Education Limited, a not for profit organisation is
committed to reducing trauma on our roads nationally by
educating young people in senior high school, through its
flagship programme RYDA. Statistics tell us
that the most dangerous time for any young road user is in
the first six to 12 months of being a solo driver. RYDA,
which is celebrating its 10th year in New Zealand, is
written and overseen by a world renowned advisory council
made up of road safety experts and psychologists and
designed to change the way young people think and act on our
roads not only as drivers but also as passengers.

Next
week from Monday March 13 to Thursday 16th senior high
school students from the Nelson and Tasman area will attend
RYDA - a potentially lifesaving road safety
education programme. Nearly 1000 year 12 students will go
through the programme from Waimea college, Nelson College,
Nelson Girls College, Nayland College, Motueka High School,
Abel Tasman Education trust and Youth Nelson.

Plus on
Tuesday the 50,000th student will attend since the programme
started 10 years ago and Road Safety Education will be
presenting a special certificate to the Nelson College (the
attending school that day) to mark this occasion. The
RYDA programme is a community based
initiative coordinated through local Rotary Clubs to help
make our roads safer, with the generous support from
corporate sponsors including BOC, NZ Steel, Bridgestone,
BOSCH and the Alexander Group and in the Nelson area
generous support from the Nelson City and Tasman District
councils.

“Young people continue to be over represented
in deaths and injuries on our roads – it is a national
tragedy that over 80 young people aged 15-25 died on our
roads last year.[1] For each one of these fatalities
approximately 20 more suffer life changing situations such
as brain and spinal injuries", said Road Safety Education
Programme manager Maria Lovelock.

“There are a number
of reasons, some outside a young driver’s control, why
they are at such high risk. Their brains are still
developing, they exhibit sensation-seeking behaviour, they
are greatly influenced by peer pressure, they often drive
less road-worthy cars, can be sleepy and often drive at
night or for 'fun'. Most importantly, they lack experience
in the broad range of driving situations and road
conditions. It's up to us as a community to bridge that gap
of inexperience and underdevelopment with as many tools as
we can for better planning and decision making. That's what
the RYDA programme is all about."

RYDA is not a driving course – it’s
about attitude and awareness, providing our young road users
with the knowledge and skills to make smart decisions stay
safe on the road. The overarching aim of RYDA is to prepare
young people for solo driving and safer passenger behaviour.
Underlying the program goal is a broader strategy of
supporting and strengthening road safety culture with a
focus on the social obligations of being a road user.

More than half of students attending RYDA are already
driving, either as learners under supervision, or have just
begun unsupervised driving. The program aims to prepare all
participants for solo driving by giving them tools to lower
their risks. By tools we mean knowledge, attitudes and
personalised strategies. The message at RYDA is clear -
being safer as a driver or passenger depends on both
developing experience and adopting the key risk-lowering
strategies. This year nearly 7000 students will attend RYDA
from around the country. “We believe this programme is
contributing to saving young people’s lives on the
roads.” says Lovelock “It is encouraging to see schools
in the Nelson and Tasman area make this a priority and add
it into their school calendar each year.”

Road
Safety Education Limited is a not for profit organisation
that runs best practice road safety programmes for young
people through NZ and Australia. Every year over 50,000
young people attend their full day interactive programme
which aims to change the way young people think and act on
the roads, both as drivers and passengers. To date nearly
50,000 young people have attended RYDA in New Zealand. For
more information please visit www.rse.org.nz

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